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How to Get Old Brains to Think Like Young Ones

Researchers have started to unravel why older brains are less flexible than young ones—and have used their findings to reverse the process

By

Alison Gopnik

July 7, 2017 10:37 a.m. ET

As the saying goes, old dogs—or mice or monkeys or people—can’t learn new tricks. But why? Neuroscientists have started to unravel the brain changes that are responsible. And as a new paper in the journal Science shows, they can even use these research findings to reverse the process. Old mice, at least, really can go back to learning like young ones.

The new study builds on classic work done by Michael Merzenich at the...